The storm
by Greatkingrat88
Summary: The Inu-tachi is caught in a storm, and the party is forced to separate. With the storm of a lifetime raging around them, Inuyasha and Sango seek refuge in a cave.


You'd think this account was dead with what little activity I have had here, but it isn't. This time, I am back with a little project, just for fun: A co-written story. About half of this was written by one "Animeroxs Rin-Sess and Inu-Kag", with whom I had been talking for a few weeks until one day I suggest, "Hey, wanna write a story together?" So we started on one. Originally I had hoped that she would post the story, but she didn't want to. Yeah.

So… this is a new story, -an Inuyasha story meant to be a InuYasha/Sango fic, actually- not something very serious, just something written for the fun of writing. Read and enjoy, or don't. I'm happy either way. How about you, Animeroxs?

Here come the story!

The night was not quiet so much as it was a cacophony of various sounds. Or at least so it seemed to Kagome, who had been trying very hard to fall asleep. She and the group were getting up early, as they always were, to continue their seemingly never-ending quest for the Shikon no Tama.

Recently, they had been beaten badly by yet another of Naraku's seemingly endless incarnations. They had won in the end, but Inuyasha had taken some serious wounds, and Sango was a little worse for the wear. She herself had fared better, since her bow and arrow had let her fight from as relatively safe distance.

She sighed. She worried, so much. About Inuyasha, about her friends, about Kikyo… sometimes, when it felt as if it would never end, she asked herself if Inuyasha really was worth the trouble. She was not as sure as she might have been half a year ago.

Suddenly, the subject of her greatest worries stood up.

"Something's coming." Inuyasha said, loud enough to wake them all.

Something was indeed coming. It was no yokai, though- the increasing winds and the small strands of rain told of a more natural occurrence.

A storm.

This storm, however, was not like any other. The clouds were as black as

Kagome's hair, and the wind was blowing so hard that it could literally blow a person away.

The rain was falling in sheets and the wind whipped at them. The rain felt like little

glass shards, cutting their skin with each piece. The clear beautiful sky that

had been there an hour ago was now dark and ominous. Kagome shuddered, and

ran her hands over her arms for warmth. The temperature had dropped, and it was now

so cold that Kagome could see her breath.

"I-Inuyasha" Kagome muttered. Her teeth were now chattering from the cold.

"I know. Everyone, let's go." Inuyasha said, as he put Kagome on his back. He

took off full speed towards the woods, seeking shelter from the harsh winds.

Sango, Shippo, and Miroku were right behind him, riding on Kirara. Suddenly, a large gust of wind blew, causing a tree to fall over, right in Kirara's path. Too late to evade, she smashed into the tree, causing everyone aboard her to go flying. Inuyasha spun around, and headed back towards his friends.

"Inuyasha, you check on Sango and Kirara. I will check on Miroku and Shippo!"

Kagome called to him, but he didn't hear her over the raging storm.

Not needing to be told, though, Inuyasha jumped to it. Kirara had crashed close to him, now curled up whining in her small kitten form. Sango lay on the ground, groaning in pain. She had hurt her arm in the last battle, and she seemed to have landed on the same bad arm. It didn't look like it had broken, but he was no expert. Running up, not even bothering to try and hide his concern, he called to her:

"You all right, Sango?"

Propping herself up in a sitting position with her good arm, Sango replied, grimacing in pain, "I've been better."

Inuyasha took a quick look towards Kagome. She seemed fine, helping Miroku with what looked like a sprained ankle. Turning back to Sango, he grabbed her good arm and pulled her to her feet.

"Can ya move it? Is it broken?" He asked.

"I think I can…" Sango said, still not quite recovered from the crash. She made a fist, but when she tried to raise the arm, there was a sharp pain shooting through it. It fell back to her side, hanging almost lame.

Inuyasha reached down, picked up the whining Kirara, and stuffed the fire cat down his jacket. Then, rather than risking another moment still in this storm- there was lightning now, and plenty of it- he slung Sango's good arm over his shoulder, supporting her; walking off towards Kagome and Miroku quick as he could.

If he had thought walking with Sango rather than running would be easier, he was wrong. The lightning struck everywhere, and the winds whipped the forest, making trees fall either on Inuyasha or in his way. He constantly had to jump out of the way, or risk getting them both flattened.

Miroku and Kagome were nowhere to be seen; he had lost sight of them in the woods, and the rain was making his sense of smell quite useless.

Sango groaned as Inuyasha jumped out of the way of yet another tree. Every time he jumped, her bad arm would rock back and forth, causing her pain.

Inuyasha noticed Sango pain. "Sango, you all right?" He asked, concern laced his voice, like he would for any one of his nakama.

"Jumping…" She managed to mutter. "Every time you jump, it hurts my arm." Not wasting any time, Inuyasha nodded, and picked up Sango in a bridal carry.

At the corner of his eye, he saw another tree heading towards them. He quickly jumped out of the way. As he landed, he looked at Sango, to see if she was still in pain. Her expression told him two things. First, that she wasn't in that much pain anymore- it seemed she had hit her head in the crash; and second- that they needed to get out of this storm, now.

Picking up the pace, Inuyasha charged through the woods as fast as he dared. Mentally, he cursed himself- he always was around to protect Kagome, and now she was nowhere to be seen. There was no helping it, though. He had run in the right direction, and he had to have passed them while dodging trees. Right now, going back wasn't really an option. Had Kirara been conscious, he might have considered taking to the skies- except even Inuyasha knew better than to do that during a thunder storm.

Which left him running in a mass of what essentially were giant lightning attractors.

He swore to himself again. Kagome wasn't anywhere within earshot- earshot having been limited by the howling winds- and shelter really had to be first priority. He guessed that he could settle for protecting Sango instead. The notion of protecting something made him feel more at ease, though he worried, oh how he worried for Kagome. He had to trust the priest and Kagome herself this time over.

The storm and its nature unsettled him. It had come so suddenly, and with such great force that he found himself suspecting foul play, a witches curse or something like it.

But then again, he reminded himself, great storms sometimes happen by themselves. Not everything was the fault of Naraku- perhaps it was just mighty Susano-o, god of storms, raging at them, like his mother had told him of?

Kagome looked around, worried. Inuyasha had disappeared, and she had no idea where to. The last time she saw him was when he ran to check on Sango and Kirara. She suspected that he couldn't find his way back to her, in this storm. The wind  
was throwing their scents everywhere, and if he couldn't smell them, couldn't see them, then he had no way to find them.

Kagome looked down at the still unconscious Miroku. He had a large bump on his  
head, from where he had hit a tree. Kagome wasn't sure, but he could be suffering a concussion. Shippo on the other hand looked fine, if knocked out. She guessed he was going to wake up soon.

Kagome bit her lip. She didn't know what to do. Usually, Inuyasha told them what to do. Was she supposed to wait for Inuyasha to come get them? Or were they supposed to go find him?

Kagome sighed again. She then shook her head to clear her thoughts, and to focus on her hurt friends. She was not stupid, she knew they needed to get out of this raging  
storm. She looked around again, and her eyes glanced at a small cave in the  
distance. Her face became determined. She picked up Shippo, and gently put him  
in her yellow school bag. She hoisted Miroku up, and swung his arm around her  
neck. She put her arm around his waist, and began the short, but tiring  
journey towards the cave. 

Inuyasha ran, leaping back and forth to avoid the lightning. It was not really doing him any good; the bolts would strike randomly and every leap could just be taking him closer to that fatal hit, but it felt better to be going fast. At least this way he was getting somewhere.

On second though, not really- he had not seen any decent form of shelter yet, and they had to be at least half a mile away from where Kirara had fallen. Inuyasha cursed, frustrated.

There! Finally, just along a cliffside there seemed to be a cave opening. Stone wasn't very good for lightning bolts, he knew that much. Running faster, he hurried towards the cave. Not really bothering to inspect it, he rushed straight in. There was something about the lightning and the storm that frightened, him, though he'd never admit it.

His next footstep made it apparent that one should not run headlong into dark, unfamiliar caves. There was a distinct 'crack', and the rock his left foot stood on gave way, falling God knows where. His running came to an abrupt halt, as he fell over, twisting his leg, sliding over the rough, wet rock floor. Somehow, he managed to not fall on top of the still unconscious Sango, but he lost his hold of her. He swore and cursed, feeling a searing pain in his leg.

Within a minute or so, he had recovered. He checked his body. Leg: hurting badly. Nothing that a night's sleep or two could not fix. Rest of body: bruised. He propped himself up in a sitting position. He ached all over- the rock floor had several sharp stone shards all along it. He looked around. He could barely make the blurry, greyish black outline of the cave, its entrance barely visible. A human could have seen nothing. He fiddled with his sash. Good; the Tetsusaiga was still hanging at his side. Now...

"Sango?" he shouted into the cave, struggling to make himself heard over the storm.

Inuyasha felt worried. Not only had he failed to protect his friends, but he had lost Sango. The on person he was supposed to protect right now was gone. The caver they had fallen into was small, cramped. You couldn't comfortably fit more than two people in it.

If… no. Inuyasha shook his head. They would meet the rest of the group. They couldn't stay here. The cave would protect them from the storm, and then they would move on.

The walls of the cave were wet- rain, Inuyasha guessed, seeping through cracks from the mountainside. Through the gloom, he could make out several large holes, big enough for a man to fall through. Kami-sama knows where he might end up if he fell in.

He could hear bats flapping about in the cave, seeking shelter. He could see slithering movements- even the snakes had sought shelter from the storm, it seemed.

He sniffed the air. It smelled salty- was there salt rock in the walls? He sniffed again, focusing his efforts on finding Sango's scent. He knew well what she smelled like- of yokai bones, of Kirara, a little of Miroku, and distinctly of lilacs.

"Sango?" he called out again, limping forward on his good leg. "Can you hear me, Sango?" He paused, sniffing, concentrating. This wasn't a big cave, not once you go to its floor after that fall. E shouldn't be hard to find. …unless she fell into one of those holes. Damn. He counted. Three holes large enough to fall through in total, further into the cave. No, he would have noticed- Sango had dropped off him earlier, before he got to the cave wall.

Carefully, moving one step at a time, he walked towards the cave opening, from whence he came. Yes, Sango was definitely there- he could tell. Now to find her.

"Inuyasha?" he heard her voice. "Inuyasha, are you there?"

Good. She was awake, and she sounded all right.

"I'm here, no worries." He said. "Twisted my ankle, though."

"Where is Kagome-chan and Houshi-sama?" she asked, her voice all concern.

"I got no idea." He said. "When I picked you up, I had to start running 'fore a bolt of lightning hit. We got separated when I started running, and now we're at this here cave. Safe from the storm, at least."

"How can you be so calm about this?" she exclaimed. "They're out there now, stuck in that storm!"

"You don't think this drives me crazy, knowing Kagome's in danger?" he retorted. "Nothing we can do about it. Going out would be stupid. If a lightning bolt don't hit you, a falling tree or a landslide might get ya. There are plenty of caves in these mountains, so we'll just have to trust them both to be strong, okay?"

"But-" she interjected.

"Can ya walk with that bad arm and that hit over the head? Can I be running around with this ankle? We'll only get ourselves killed for no reason if we go out now. Findin' anything in this storm will be like findin' a needle in a haystack that's trying to kill ya."

"So… are we just supposed to do nothing?" She sounded angry at the thought.

Inuyasha shrugged. "Feh. We need to rest, heal our wounds, and wait for this damn storm to pass!"

Sango sat down and huffed. "This is going to take forever!" She muttered, more to herself than to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, and sat down across from Sango. "Go to sleep and I'll keep watch."

Sango rolled her eyes, and murmured, "You always do" before lying down and closing her eyes.

Inuyasha looked up at the roof of the cave and sighed. This was going to be a long night.


End file.
